


Friends Will Never Love You Like I Can

by explodingnebulae



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Developing Relationship, Drabble, Fluff, Inspired by Music, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-28
Updated: 2017-04-28
Packaged: 2018-10-25 00:35:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10753029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/explodingnebulae/pseuds/explodingnebulae
Summary: Ignis is stress baking for an upcoming banquet and thinking heavily on Noct's possible relationship with Prompto. However, when Noctis arrives, the prince wants to make something very clear.





	Friends Will Never Love You Like I Can

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



_He could have your humor…but I don’t understand…  
‘Cause he’ll never love you like I can_

Ignis found strange comfort in the lyrics as he continued baking a series of mini desserts for a gathering he had been invited to by a colleague. Members of the Citadel often shared events with one another so they could defend one another lest something go south. Such events have never occurred, but Ignis knew it was better to prepared for an attack that would never come than be restive and have disaster strike. 

He shuffled around the kitchen, his apron, finger tips and cheek covered with confectioners’ sugar and flour alike. The song carried on in the background and he mindlessly, but confidently sang along, feeling the rhythm with a gentle sway of his hips as he continued to bake. 

There was often the feeling of incompleteness when cooking for others who were not his charge. The only time he truly did not mind baking until his arms were numb was when it was for Noct, the prince of Lucis, the future king, his charge, and his dearest friend. As of late, however, Ignis felt as though he had lost him and with it a piece of himself. In the last three years, Prompto had swept in like a tsunami and crashed over Noct, sweeping him off his feet and tangling him in anything and everything he could. He scrunched his nose at the thought of the distance between them and turned the song up. 

Perhaps he was jealous. Jealous that Prompto could grant Noct freedom and journeys unforeseen. He could give him spontaneity and adventure; he could give him the life of a commoner, of a person. If Noct so chose, he could be granted a regular life, he could escape into it with the energetic blond. Prompto could answer a prayer he had often heard Noct whisper before sleep. 

Ignis could not.

He dropped the tray onto the stove-top and shoved the gloves off his hands, and found that the song had been on repeat for the last six minutes. Ignis raised a brow, wondering why he had been so connected to a song, to a simple, cliche love ballad that made him seem a jealous man. He knew his feelings for Noct were not as they should be, that they weren’t professional in the slightest. He knew he was in love with the prince, he had been for years, but he could not fathom why. Noct was irritating and abrasive. He was impatient and lazy at the same time. 

But he was Noct and Ignis was bound to him for life. Even if he wasn’t, he would prefer to be at Noct’s side, someone to catch him before he fell, someone to make him smile in the way only he could. That gentle, intimate grin that set his soul alight. Their way of communicating without spoken word and their ability to express a concept in a single touch…

There was no way he could form that connection with anyone else. No one knew him as well as Ignis. They didn’t know the secret dreams and fragile hopes held close to a porcelain heart guarded by barbed wire. Ignis knew Noct better than anyone else in all of Lucis; better even than King Regis. 

Ignis gave a sigh as he let it play one final time, his voice once again carrying the tune. 

Maybe his jealousy was unwonted; entirely unnecessary in its existence. Noct called him or texted him daily, if not multiple times a day. They spoke often and saw one another even more frequent than that. Yes, they had a tendency to argue as of late, but they were equally stubborn and fixed in their ways. A minute into the song and he was entirely transfixed in the lyrics and a sort of hyper focus formed in his baking. 

“Your voice is beautiful, you know that?” came a voice Ignis had not expected to hear, especially not now. Not when he was so wrapped up in his own thoughts. 

“Highness, what brings you here?” Ignis inquired, more like demanded, as he quickly reached for the soundbar and paused the song. Of all the songs to walk in to him singing. The chamberlain inwardly cringed and sent a silent prayer to whatever god would listen to his plea that Noct would not read into the melody. 

How very ordinary of him.

Noct simply smiled and crossed into the kitchen. He reached for the soundbar and resumed the song before hopping up on the clear space on the kitchen island. His hand landed in a bowl of flour and he almost lost his balance. Almost. 

Ignis wasted not a second turning around. His first and foremost priority had always–and would always–be Noct. The bowl of flour clattered to the floor, glass staying surprisingly intact as the powder went flying across the wooden floor. His hands focused instead on Noct, one landed on either side and Ignis had him fixed in place on his spot at the counter.

“Are you all right, Noct?” Ignis hastily asked, his voice slightly higher than usual.

A flour covered hand grasped at Ignis’ and the chamberlain felt his cheeks grow warm. The way Noct was looking at him, or maybe the way he wanted Noct to look at him, made him reflexively return the gesture, his fingers interlocking with not one, but both of his prince’s hands. 

“Better than the flour,” he began in a mock bleak tone. “But really, Ignis. Please keep singing. I know I crashed your baking party and you said that you were busy, but…”

“But?” Ignis raised his brow and positioned himself in a more composed manner, hands still entwined with the prince’s. 

“I missed you.”

The words struck Ignis in a way he could not describe and the moment Noct’s lips drew back in a wide smile, he knew he was powerless to refuse the prince anything. 

“Very well,” he noted as he pulled his hands away from Noct and bent down to pick up the bowl. “But, if you wouldn’t mind, Noct, I would very much rather hear a different song. One of your choice.”

A ring of laughter echoed through his kitchen as he moved out of the way so Noct could slide off the counter-top. “I was hoping you’d say that, I was really starting to get tired of this one.” 

The first few lyrics of the next song came a moment later. As Ignis stood with the bowl in his hands, he wondered if Noct had intentionally selected that song or if it was mere coincidence. 

_We’re not; no we’re not friends._  
_Nor have we ever been._  
_We just try to keep those secrets in a lie;_  
_and if they find out;_  
_will it all go wrong?_  
_And Heaven knows–_

“ _No one wants it to_ ,” Ignis finished the line and found himself unable to take his eyes off Noct, who was still thankfully staring at the soundbar.

When the prince finally turned around, the smile on his lips weakened Ignis more than it should have and his voice faltered as he continued to–essentially–serenade his prince. 

By the end of the song, Ignis had the entire kitchen cleaned and the desserts organized by flavor. Three minutes was all it took for the chamberlain to pull off an hour-long feat. 

“Noct?” Ignis piped up after the silence that followed the song. 

“Yeah, Specs?”

“Was there a particular reason you chose that song?” He realized he was afraid of the answer.

The silence that subsequently came made him tense, caused him to, for the first time in his life, second guess the words that came from his mouth. He tensed further when Noct looked away for a moment, the honey smooth smile disappearing from his lips. 

_____ _

“Just wanted to clear some things up. And now that that’s out of the way, can I try some of these?”

_____ _


End file.
